Tag: Mark Twain

A dozen things I’ve learned from my writers group

Instead of “Pizza and a Movie” (we’re skipping it, today), this post is about another one of my (sometime) Friday activities. For several years, I’ve participated in a writers’ critique group (called the Writers Circle) connected with the Atlanta Writers Group.

It’s facilitated by my friend Gelia Dolcimascolo and meets twice a month at Georgia Perimeter College, now known as Georgia State University Perimeter College (I think). On alternate Fridays, some members meet at area businesses that welcome us, like coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants.

This is a multi-genre group–kind of appropriate for me, as a multi-genre author (something I didn’t plan to be, but there it is). Members are poets, short story and flash fiction writers, nonfiction writers, screenplay writers, and novelists. Genres include fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, literary fiction, women’s fiction, children’s and middle grade, young adult, and others. We read several pages of our work in progress (WIP) aloud to the group, and then discuss, sharing comments and reactions. The idea is to help each other improve, and over the years, I certainly have.

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Members at a meeting discussing someone’s work (guess which one is me)

Here are 12 things I have learned (just a partial list, undoubtedly):

  1. How to construct a story arc, and where elements like plot twists belong (thank you, screenplay writers!)
  2. How to tighten my writing (wordy = bad)
  3. How to write believable (and good) dialogue, and that if you don’t need a tag (“he said”), remove it
  4. What to do when I am stuck (write something – anything!)
  5. How to take suggestions and criticism, and use it to improve my story (thick skin = good)
  6. How to dig deep when writing about my own emotions (see ALL THE ABOVE: My son’s battle with brain cancer)
  7. That others can see the problems and issues in my writing (everything from typos to story and character inconsistencies) when I can’t
  8. What genre I am writing in, in a particular work (sounds weird, I know, but when I was working on my novel UNDERWATER–originally titled THE PROJECT–and wondered aloud, “What the heck kind of story is this?”, another member immediately responded, “Suspense, of course!”)
  9. That I can learn something from writers of other genres, even if writing in that genre is not something I could ever do
  10. To take out anything that doesn’t move the story forward, and write only what does (“if you don’t need it, take it out”)
  11. That’s it’s okay to write what you know, and use elements from your own experiences in your work
  12. How to “show, don’t tell” (paraphrasing Mark Twain: “Don’t tell me that the fat lady sings–bring her out, and let her sing!”)

Sometimes, in the midst of all this learning and discussing, things get animated. So, when she needs to, facilitator Gelia rings a bell, to get things back on track (kind of like in the servants’ area downstairs, in Downton Abbey). Recently, she added a plaque next to the bell, in the center of our table:

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Are you part of a writers’ critique group, and if so, what have you learned and how have you benefited?

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Mission Mode, as mode de vie

At a recent Atlanta Sisters in Crime meeting, the invited speaker, a former FBI Special Agent, described how she kept emotion in check for over two decades when she worked on heartrending, tragic cases: She went into “mission mode.”

Being writers, we pushed her to elaborate. “How did you feel?” asked one member. “What was going on inside of you?” The agent responded that she drew on her professional training and experience to compartmentalize* her feelings.

“I just went into ‘mission mode,'” she said. “You’re on a mission, so you stay in mission mode until you get the job done.” As she described an example to us, tears came to her eyes.

Afterward, another ‘sister’ and I discussed the Agent’s talk, and the term “mission mode.”

“I can use that in my current work in progress,” said my sister, whose book has Secret Service Agent characters. “I’d been looking for the terminology they use for that, and now I can use it in dialogue and elsewhere.” **

I can’t use the term in the book I’m writing. But in a different way, it described my attitude–my mode de vie, or way of life–when my son Jack battled cancer almost five years ago. I went into mission mode trying to protect and support him. I lived on hope. And I refused to take No for an answer. Last year, I wrote the story of our journey together. Titled ALL THE ABOVE, it will be released this spring.

Jack, weeks after his diagnosis and his first surgery (and first scar):IMG_0022

 

 

 

 

 

 I can’t fathom what’s it like to work in law enforcement, where mission mode is normale, if not obligatoire. As an author, I imagine*** stories–make them up–and though I also have to “get the job done,” it seems a much easier job. But for 6 months in 2010, I had a lot going on inside of me that I shared with no one but my husband.

Until I wrote ALL THE ABOVE.

 * my word, not hers

**paraphrasing

*** fiction, that is; ALL THE ABOVE is a true story

 

 

 

 

 

Getting it done, sans doute

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on til you come to the end; then stop.”
– Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
 

“Best advice I’ve ever received: Finish.”
– Peter Mayle
 

Sounds easy, right?

I doubt “the King” was talking about writing a novel (I never read Alice in Wonderland), but I think A Year in Provence* author Peter Mayle was.

When I wrote UNDERWATER, I did begin at (what I thought was) the beginning. But it didn’t turn out to be. To guess what I mean, click here and “Look Inside” to read the first few pages.

Now I’m working on Book 4, another thriller with tie-ins to UNDERWATER, and I’m at that part between the beginning and the end, where I must “go on.” (I’ve written about un tiers – a third – so far.) While I’m behind on my goal of 50,000 words** by Thanksgiving (looks like it will be Noel), at least I’m hitting my plot points. And when I’m finished, I’ll stop.

(Then I’ll begin revisions, editing, etc…but that’s another post.)

“Going on” right now is work, and it can be hard to focus sometimes. Doubt creeps in…and I push it away.

This book, like UNDERWATER, is set in Atlanta, and scenes take place in fictional neighborhoods here, with a few (real) landmarks as anchors. And, like in UNDERWATER, characters are not based on people I know, and events are made up. Drawn from my own experiences, observations, and imagination, they interweave and eventually turn into a novel.

“Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself.”
– Mark Twain
 
* Which I have read, as well as many of his other books
** Which is well over the mid-point of the story 
 
 
 
 

 

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Writing what you know, and eschewing surplusage

“Use the right word, not its second cousin.”
– Mark Twain

 

Making the right word choice is one of the tenets of my writers’ group. At a recent meeting, we discussed the whether the words basic and ubiquitous mean (basically) the same thing–at least, in the sentence we were considering. So I looked them up in my iPad dictionary app. As you might guess, they don’t. 

But in that context, were they so close that one of them should go? The person whose work it was would decide. At our weekly meetings, we offer feedback, make suggestions, encourage one another, and talk about writerly things. We have a few sayings, too, some stemming from the below Mark Twain quotes:

1. “Write what you know.”
We say this one a lot–it may be ubiquitous. Note that it doesn’t mean, tell a true story (unless you’re writing non-fiction). “What you know” includes the places you’ve been, the emotions you’ve felt, etc.
2. “As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.”
We often say the second part of this (“when in doubt, strike it out”). Also, see above (basic and ubiquitous).
3. “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
See #2.
4. “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”
See #2.
5. “Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.”
(Show, don’t tell.)
6. “One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.”
(I’m guilty of this one, but I’ve gotten a lot better. Haha.)
7. “Write without pay until someone offers pay.”
I mean, what choice do we have, if we want to write?
8. “If the writer doesn’t sweat, the reader will.”
(Work hard.)
9. “I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”
(Conflict! And, see #1.)
10. “Eschew surplusage.”
(Don’t be wordy!) I’m working on this one, too. Just to be sure I understood it, I looked both words up, since it looks and sounds a little like “Chew sausage.”
 

And those are the basics.

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